I am looking to develop a new wordpress site and could really do with some help in identifying a suitable theme.The website will be a relatively simple info site with the aim of driving traffic. Therefore I need a theme that is very SEO friendly and suitable for advertising.I would also like a theme that will allow me to add plugins, specifically the yoast SEO plugin, XML-Sitemaps & PageNavi.I have limited experience with WP and have never built a WP site from scratch so I need a simple theme for beginners. I've looked at Genesis and Thesis which look great but I think may be a bit too advanced, particularly when it comes to the frameworks, child themes etc.In addition I would like something with great support (I'll need it), that's secure, regularly updated and that can support video. I'm happy to pay for the right theme.I've also looked at Canvas & U-design which looked more simple, would these fit the bill?Any suggestions would be much appreciated.Cheers

We are looking to create a simple information website using wordpress. I previously posted asking for something simple and user friendly as we are newbies and we we're recommended Canvas.

However it seems that the architecture we would like is not as simple as we first thought and we've been advised that Wordpress itself may not be suitable

Essentially the website will be a database of information. We will have a home page with, we hope nested pages (a-c, d-g) etc on the left which when clicked on will expand to list all the companies. Once the visitor clicks on their company they will be taken to a new page with a short menu bar across the top (retaining the nested pages on the left) with 5 tabs linking to pages containing info relating to that company. Each company will have the same information page options for them, each containing relevant information for that particular company. So i guess it's like a subdomain for each company. does this make any sense?

Could anyone suggest a wordpress theme that would be suitable for this? We need something relatively simple, that has good support. We will be fine adding widgets and plugins but I think writing lines of code will be beyond us.

If what we want to do is going to be difficult in wordpress could anyone suggest an alternative web builder that might do the trick? the overall aim of this site is to drive traffic, so it needs to be very SEO friendly and good for advertising.

I'm not sure you're describing anything terribly complex. Sounds like basic linking and menus to me for which many themes would work just fine. How many companies are you displaying? Will they be entered by you on the back end or is this some kind of directory where companies can enter their info on the website?

I don't see why it would be a subdomain for each company. Probably just a page for each, or a few pages.

Some themes have shortcodes that are nice for organizing info like this into neat navigation elements.

I am looking to develop a new wordpress site and could really do with some help in identifying a suitable theme. The website will be a relatively simple info site with the aim of driving traffic. Therefore I need a theme that is very SEO friendly and suitable for advertising.

Wordpress is a pretty simple platform to use once you get to know your way around. It is pretty easy to adjust from an SEO point of view depending on how meticulous you want to be.

Bandyboy said:

I would also like a theme that will allow me to add plugins, specifically the yoast SEO plugin, XML-Sitemaps & PageNavi.I have limited experience with WP and have never built a WP site from scratch so I need a simple theme for beginners. I've looked at Genesis and Thesis which look great but I think may be a bit too advanced, particularly when it comes to the frameworks, child themes etc.In addition I would like something with great support (I'll need it), that's secure, regularly updated and that can support video. I'm happy to pay for the right theme.

Plugins install into Wordpress rather than the theme, so you will be fine on this front. Some themes come packaged with some plugins pre-installed which is where your confusion might be. The preinstalled options are usually optional allowing you to use a different plugin if you don't like the theme one.

WP is pretty easy to work with from scratch. You create a database, assign a database admin with full privledges making note of the login/password. Download the latest WP version, upload to the root directory, unzip and then run the WP install wizard. Before you know it you'll be done.

Genesis and Thesis are both considered frameworks which allow custom websites to be built on top of them using shortcuts. They are more complex in the initial stages but developers who use wordpress a lot come to appreciate the flexibility they offer. There are those who build themes for these frameworks too (as opposed to Wordpress themes). So it can get a little confusing.

One thing I would HIGHLY recommend is to build a child theme for whatever WP theme you use/buy. They are simple but I would say essential and will save you lots of work. The reason for them is that it keeps your theme and any customisations you make separate. The biggest reason is that in the future if the theme receives an upgrade and you've made some customisations to the CSS etc, you may lose all that work. A child theme protects those changes and allows you to safely and happily update your purchased theme at will.

Video support is something that is built in to WP. Most of the major formats you'll be using will be supported. The way the video is triggered and presented may vary using themes. For example some themes may present video in a pop-up lightbox. [/QUOTE]

Bandyboy said:

I've also looked at Canvas & U-design which looked more simple, would these fit the bill?

I've not had any experience with Canvas but have used U-design. It is very feature-rich and has good documentation. It can be overwhelming because of the amount of features but the documentation usually nails how to set things up.

I always recommend going for elite authors and those who support their themes, U-design certainly fits this. The others high on this list would be worth looking at too.

Initiator wordpress theme,Considering the SEO, you will get whole complete set of options to change the parameters as per your need. It is also very adaptable to almost every free and premium wordpress seo plugins.